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Instapaper quickly saves web pages for later

Instapaper is a free service that lets you quickly save the address of a website for later review. The setup is quick: create an account and drag a “Read Later” button to your browser’s bookmark bar.

Whenever you see a page you want to go back to later, click the “Read Later” button. When you’re ready to read what you’ve bookmarked, go to your Instapaper account and browse the list of items you saved.

A teacher could use this to save web pages to view in class. Inside your account, create a folder called “Next class.” Instapaper provides a “Read Later” button for that specific folder. Below is how a set of web pages for my multimedia class looks (click to enlarge).

A “Text” button on the Instapaper screen creates a simplified, text-based view of the web page, and the “Archive” function takes a site off the current list and save it for another day. Instapaper even provides an RSS feed that you could share with students.

You can use Instapaper with a browser on a mobile device. Search the web for “Instapaper for android” or whatever platform you have. It works like a champ in Safari on my iPad.

There’s also a $5 app for iPhone/iPad that can save the “Text” view of the page for offline viewing. That’s where the company makes its money – that plus selling ads and taking donations.